What’s the Impact of Bad Sleep on Our Mental Health?

The clock went off with that annoying ringtone (it doesn’t matter which one, eventually they all become ANNOYING). It’s time to wake up, again. So, once again you do the mental math (if I sleep for 10 more minutes I can still make it), reevaluate your life choices (do I really need a job/friend/activity that

The Ultimate Guide to Picking a Therapist

So you’re finally ready to get therapy. You have decided that it’s time to get the support you deserve. Next stop: Therapy; Choo Choo! And that’s when you realize another thing; Where do you FIND a therapist. And not just that, one that works for YOU. Sadly, in India, there are a lot of therapists

Society or Self: A Guide to Making Boundaries

Imagine you’re in a vehicle (even better if you’re the one in the driver’s seat). You’re going from Point A to Point B. You find bumper to bumper traffic, rolling traffic, people breaking the signals, people driving on the wrong side, sometimes even free and empty roads. Sometimes you let people go first, sometimes they

Is Singlehood Bad?

As every romantic song to ever come out from Bollywood would have us believe- we are incomplete without our partner, life is incomplete without our partner, incomplete is incomplete without our partner. And by extension they conclude- being single is bad. One must be involved, committed, or at the very least looking. Singleness, the state

How NOT crying hampers Mental Health

“Stop crying!” “What are you a girl?” “Adults don’t cry!” “Look at that loser they’re crying!” If you’ve taken a breath, the chances are that at some point in your life you may have heard these, or a version of these. They’re meant to shame, ridicule, and belittle someone when they’re feeling emotionally vulnerable. Society

Anxiety Gains: The Sneaky Benefits of Anxiety

Anxiety? Helpful? Huh? We hear you. The contradiction is unnerving and discomforting. It’s like boiling ice cream or dry water. If something is unhelpful, hurtful, and dysfunctional we’d obviously identify swiftly and resolve it. Right?  More often than not, with irrational creatures like us homo sapiens, that is not the case. The intense experience of

FOMO No Mo’: Why we feel the Fear of Missing Out and What to do about it.

Every choice to do something, is a choice not to do other things. That would be fine by itself, but now the average person spends about 2 hours a day on social media looking at the heavily curated life of friends, family, and celebrities/ pseudo-celebrities. The “perfect” social or private life paraded right in front

The Science behind Self-Sabotage

Have you ever had the feeling that it is you who is hampering your progress? Do you ever have thoughts like “If only I could get on board with myself I can conquer the world!”. Sometimes we subconsciously hinder our growth. This is a real problem that most of us may face, yet only some

How to process heavy emotions?

A lot of people come to us with similar frustrations of – “I don’t know what to do when I feel complicated emotions! Or “I feel so lost and confused when I feel these emotions that I don’t even know where to start.” They’re asking a question that no one in our life explicitly prepares

Nuclear Love: What is Love Bombing?

Love and bomb are two words that don’t usually go together. And when they do, there’s no love in it, only bombing. Love bombing is a pattern in relationships wherein one partner (knowingly or unknowingly) displays an overwhelming amount of love to the other. Why do we do that? Can love even be overwhelming? How

What makes us WANT to go to work?

Another Monday on our hands. Another week of annoyingly exhausting work upon us. Sigh. Why are some workdays worse than others? Sometimes we are able to draw from reservoirs of pure and unadulterated energy that replenish us. On some work days we find a quiet satisfaction in our souls. As if our tired souls were

Why do I attract situationships?

Word of the day- Situationships! It is the new black and the new sexy. A modern offshoot of the age-old concept of relationships, situationships are becoming the go-to choice for people who want companionship along with their freedom; a.k.a something casual.  “Situationships have an in-built lack of clarity”  Situationships are somewhere between committed relationships and

Techniques to Deal with Burnout

Much like a lamp without oil, a human without proper work-life balance can’t drive away the darkness. But like a diya you can always replenish your fuel and shine brighter.But what is this “darkness”? Before we can apply a soothing balm on our burns, we need to know how to identify the epicenter of the

Is Ghosting inherently bad?

Ghosting is the modern-day equivalent of shutting the door to your room with the intent of passively refusing to communicate any further. A cut-off from a person or a situation that is intentional and singularly unknown to the person that is being “ghosted”. You can feel the “ghosts” presence online, but you can never concretely

Body Surgeries: Are they right or wrong?

Nose jobs, boob jobs, sex change surgeries, liposuction, tummy tucks, face remodeling, and reconstruction, among others, are all body surgeries. It is the augmentation, reconstruction, and customization of different parts of our body using plastic surgery. It may be for medical or cosmetic purposes with the former being widely accepted and the latter being popularly

Mental Health in a System

Imagine you live in a remote area and you break your leg. It would take hours to reach medical help. Now imagine if there were emergency helicopters that could get you to a hospital within the hour. It would certainly make healing easier, right? This applies to mental health too. A system that supports mental

Women and Masturbation Guilt

As humans, sexual pleasure is as basic a need for us as food, water and shelter. Who better to give us this basic need than our own selves?  Masturbation then becomes a natural expression of this fundamental desire. Society and cultural norms however seek to control and disguise this natural phenomenon as unhealthy and sinful

Understanding Graysexuality

Sexual orientation underlines whom we are attracted to physically, emotionally and sexually. As much as we want it to be, life is never completely one thing, or another. This holds true for sexual orientations too. This philosophy is embodied by conceptualizing sexual orientation as a spectrum. Furthermore, sexual orientations are a part of us, we

Identify and Manage Social Anxiety

As Zohra and Yogita say in the podcast, Social Anxiety, Introversion and Shyness are not the same! Minute yet significant differences exist between the three of them. So buckle up muchachos, it’s time to investigate and underline this difference.  Shyness is a personality trait. Shy people take a while longer to open up and feel

Top Reasons Why We Choose Stress

Kya aapke toothpaste mein namak hai? Kya aapke zindagi mein stress hai? So if you can choose which toothpaste to brush with, why not choose which stress you endure! Weird idea? Allow me to elaborate. What is choice? Philosophers have been tinkering with this idea for millennia.  Essentially, choice is something that helps us walk

Which Type Of Procrastination Do You Have?

What is procrastination? Good question, I’ll answer that later.  Maybe you’re reading this because you want to know more. Maybe you’re reading this because there’s some impending work, social obligation or filial responsibility that you’re trying to postpone for a future you that is definitely not going to appreciate it. The world goes round and

Kya dilwaale dulhaniya le jayenge?

When Amitabh Bacchan said “mere paas maa hai”, it was a resounding statement with far-reaching socio-cultural implications.  No amount of material possessions can overpower our need for human connection. The people that we surround ourselves with, the bonds we choose to water, uniquely add to our lives. From a friend, a partner, a sibling to

3 Ways To Deal With Anger

Anger, a primal emotion that is ever-present in our daily lives in little ways, is also one of the most searched terms on google. When this piece was written, the most searched query vis-a-vis anger is “how to control anger immediately” followed by “how to control anger and anxiety”. Babies feel it, adults feel it,

Grief and its Many Faces

“Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.”  It strikes the mother who just realized her kid’s childhood is over, it strikes the 10th std student who realizes their school life is at an end, it

Biases, Beliefs, and Bigotry

Women are weak! Men are strong! Fat people are lazy! Short men are ugly! Fair skinned women are beautiful! Don’t worry, we don’t believe any of that. They are all classic examples of a bias. Bias is an unfair tendency to believe that one thing is better or worse than another that has no basis

Deep Cleaning Your Mind

WAKE UP, GET  DRESSED, GO TO WORK/UNIVERSITY, COME BACK, SLEEP, WAKE UP… A standard modus operandi for most of us. We go through the motions so often that we forget to actually pause, take a breath, and for lack of a better metaphor, smell the roses.  Now you could be allergic to roses and still

Causes of Exam Stress

The term exam stress sounds familiar. At some point in your life you must have used it in a conversation, maybe as an excuse or maybe because you actually felt tensed and breathless while you were sweating with confusion, standing sleepy right outside the exam room. But do you actually know what it is? If

ALIVE

Flourishing during Pandemic – Positive Psychology Edition Have you been sliding invites because you’re too afraid to face a crowd? Does your heart race and your ears go red? Or is it the judgement that haunts you? Well, here’s an invite you would never want to avoid! Inner Planet Present Alive- An initiative to spread

Flourishing during Pandemic – Positive Psychology Edition

Flourishing during Pandemic – Positive Psychology Edition If you were to look up the meaning of “Flourishing” in the dictionary, you would find a definition similar to “grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly congenial environment.” However, what if we tell you that you can at

Mind menu: food and you

Food sustains us while the right kind of food also promotes a healthy body and a healthy mind. Our eating habits are culturally bound, but are subjected to vary from person to person. Much like other habits, eating habits are also formed as a result of repetition of behavior that eventually turns into learned behavior.

Follow your flow

Have you ever been so “in the moment” that you lost track of time and your surroundings?Perhaps while you were engaging in something creative, working or just playing a video game?If you answered “yes”, you may have experienced the state of flow. What is flow? In the 1970s, positive psychologist Mihaly Czhikszentmihalyi (yes, we took

Dating apps and the suite of cards

It is an established fact that technology has assisted us to effortlessly and speedily engage in multiple activities ranging from occupational affairs, to entertainment and recreational pastimes. But lately, it has also taken over the role of bringing people together to unfold all kinds of relationships. This advancement is like no other because it makes

5 ways to be an LGBTQ+ ally

The Pride Month is almost coming to an end, but you know what isn’t, LOVE! Pride Month lets people from the LGBTQ+ community celebrate who they are. For straight people, it is an opportunity to expand their horizons and learn more about the diverse gender spectrum. If you are wondering how you, as a straight

What to expect from a Good Therapist – The Family Man Edition.

The stigma attached to mental health in India may not be surprising to many of us. Time and again, we have heard of multiple incidents wherein seeking help is linked with shame or weakness, denying people of the professional support they need and deserve.Although more people are actively seeking support today, there still exists a

Types of love: 3 ingredients, 7 recipes

One of the fundamental needs of human beings is to love and be loved. For it is love that binds us together and nurtures us. Many times, we consider romantic love to be of more importance, sitting at a higher pedestal. Is romantic love more valuable? Let’s help you decide that for yourselves. There are

The Social Clock: Is time really ticking?

Haven’t received that pay check you hoped to receive at 25? Did not marry by 30?Feeling like you haven’t done as much as you were “supposed” to do by this time in your life? We KNOW that you have felt this way at some point in your life! Being a part of society comes with

8 Ways to Boost your Emotional Intelligence

Do you know any kids from school who used to score solid A+ in their report card but couldn’t manage friendships or relationships? One would look at them and feel how they must have the best of everything. Eventually, when they completed their education and entered jobs, they couldn’t manage, despite having an ideal report

Breaking Biases: Cognitive biases in daily life

The brain makes human beings capable of special abilities like thinking, information processing, and feeling. Although we like to consider ourselves as perceptive beings, we tend to make multiple misinterpretations while we process information. This leads to errors in judgment and faulty decision-making and is called cognitive biases. Cognitive biases are essentially short-cuts created by

7 Different Ways People Cope With Grief

“Weep if you must, parting is hell. But life goes on, so sing as well.” Grief, one of the most difficult emotions that we experience. Whether it is losing a loved one, health, money or breakups, grief leads to at least some disruption in our normal routine. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross describes that we go through 5

8 Most Common Roadblocks On The Path To Decide Your Career

The road to decide your career is, in fact, filled with speed bumps and roadblocks. The more one is aware of these hurdles the easier it will be for him/her to tackle them and reach the destination. What Are These Speed Bumps And Roadblocks? These barriers are present because of your lack of awareness, fear

4 Simple Steps To Mind Map Your Career

Choosing the right career, the one which you will love, and setting up proper goals for it is something that everyone aspires. Achieving goals and espousing the right career is almost like a treasure hunt. Just as a clue map is needed to locate the treasure in a treasure hunt, a mind map is used

How to Deal with COVID-19 Anxiety

Coronavirus is something that doesn’t even need an introduction anymore. Life seems like something out of a movie script, and not one of those ‘funny, comedic take on an apocalypse’ movies. There is a pandemic looming over us, while all we can do is sit at home and watch it affect individuals, families, countries, the

What exactly is Psychotherapy?

Imagine you have earphones in your pocket. The wire gets tangled up, like all earphones do. Try as hard as you might, you are unable to untangle the wire, but you really want to listen to music. Tired, you decide to ask for help. You go to a person who is really good at untangling

Process & Treatment of Exam Stress

Exam stress is that feeling of discomfort you get when you feel like you can’t cope with revision, or feel pressure due to the sense of continuous evaluation going on your head. You must’ve asked yourself why this feeling? What is causing me to feel this way? Is it even helping me? Well, Exam Stress

Social Anxiety – Triggers, Process & Treatment

Social Anxiety is the fear of being judged and evaluated negatively by other people, leading to feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, self-consciousness, embarrassment and humiliation. It is the third largest mental health care problem in the world. Did the first line of this paragraph sound familiar to you? Did you just relate to it like a

Difference between Shyness, Introversion & Social Anxiety

‘Oh dear, why don’t you open up to people? Are you shy to make friends? Don’t worry you’re just an Introvert.. try gaining more confidence, you should be an extrovert person to stand out in the crowd.’ Have you heard such conversations or suggestions before? There’s a fine line that divides these huge terms into

Choosing an Ideal Career

An ideal career is something all of us want in our lives- a profession which we would enjoy, but which will also feed our bellies. But for most of us, it only remains a dream, as we don’t have the knowledge about what constitutes to a ‘perfect career’. No matter how uncertain or clueless you

Are Negative Emotions Important?

Have you ever felt a sudden surge of a very uncomfortable feeling like a dip in your belly when your friends ditched you to a party, when your relatives criticised you for the way you dressed or when you found out that your crush has a partner? All of us have felt it, and we’d

Key To Success In Any Career

All your life you hear how intelligence is important to progress in life. How you need to be smart and your brain sharp to become successful. How you need to have a high Intelligent Quotient, aka IQ, in order to have a successful career. Everybody says that success depends on your intelligence. If you’re intelligent,

Top 5 Myths About Careers

There are so many myths that revolve around careers and how they affect your life in different ways. And most of the times, we start believing in them because we hear them way too frequently from friends, family, the aunt who lives next door. But that is certainly not the case. Here we are, with

Difference between hobby and career interest

Hobbies and career interests are often confused among people in conversations. People see others who are very good at a certain hobby and claim that they will grow up to become a professional in that field (example, they see a kid who plays the guitar very well and say, “He will grow up and become

11 Ways to Deal with Exam Anxiety

What is Exam Anxiety and How is it Different from Nervousness? Exam season is finally upon us, and with it comes an unholy amount of stress. Most of us have experienced exam-induced stress at some point in our lives. There are a few people, however, who deal with a more intense form of stress, called